HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1942, Page 5

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

VALUE OF THE TUBERCULIN TEST. DETECTION OF DISEASE. (By the Health Department.) One of the most effective ways medical science has discovered of tracking down tuberculosis is the tuberculin test, a simple and painless process that tells whether or not a person has tuberculosis infection.

A specially prepared fluid is injected into the arm. Two days later there may be a raised spot, slightly coloured, and rather like a mosquito bite, at the site of the injection. That means the test is positive. The spot is a warning signal —it shows that the body has been invaded by tuberculosis germs (the disease is infectious, not hereditary), and that possibly normal resistance has overcome them. In other words, the invaders have'been surrounded by healthy body tissue and kept immobile. They are not by any means dead. They are merely waiting for the body tissue around them to weaken, and then they break out and flood the lung. Most people, by the time they reach adult years, have been infected by the tuberculosis germ, and by keeping themselves healthy have been able to avoid, trouble. If. however, a person's vitality is lowered through any cause, then his immunity might cease, and another case of tuberculosis added to the already unhappily long list in this country. Common causes of lowered vitality are overwork, overstudy, too little deep, improper diet, insufficient food, and excesses of any sort. A negative tuberculin test shews thano germs are present. It is frequently encountered in young children, and for that reason the test should be repeated at intervals.

It is important to bear in mind that tuberculosis is curable if it is discovered and treated early enough. The tuberculin test is the initial step.